Before You Build Your Website – List Your Objectives!

A website without objectives is like going on a trip without a destination. How will you know if you are on the right road and on schedule, if you don’t even know where you are going. And even if you are heading in the right direction, you still need to recognise when you’ve arrived there!

Yes, it’s important that your website is responsive and mobile friendly so that it works across all types of device, but regardless of how great the site looks, if it doesn’t have a clear purpose it won’t fulfil its potential.

So, before you do anything else, we encourage you to write down your primary objectives. For example:
To raise our profile so more people go to our site?
To increase online sales?
To generate more enquiries?
To reduce our admin time and printing/postage overheads?
To improve staff efficiency and overall staff happiness?
To open up a specific new market?

These are just a few of the mainstream objectives. Every business has variations of them, or provides more specific answers. For example, You might even want to be more specific and say you want to generate an extra £xxx sales in a specific market in the next 12 or 24 months.

All you have to do is list them. If we know what you want to achieve, we can devise a plan to get you there.

It’s also worth asking yourself (and letting us know!) things like:
Why does your site exist?
Does it fill any type of niche market?
Why will people visit your site?
And what will make them return?
Why should they visit (and buy from) your website?
How will you measure the success of this website? (we suggest incremental goals are best. Using weekly, monthly and quarterly sales targets allow you to gauge growth and see what’s working – both in terms of layout and marketing.)

If you already have a website, ask yourself:
What is it doing well at present? And could that be further improved?
What is it not doing so well? Could this be improved or should it be dropped?
What new things could it be doing?

The businesses that have the most successful websites have asked themselves these same questions. In fact, they continue to ask themselves these same questions on a regular basis as a kind of ongoing review process. The internet isn’t the same as opening a corner store – where people will just drop in and buy something because they are in the vicinity. Online shoppers have an infinite number of options and require a compelling reason to visit and actually buy from your site.

Your website is integral to the overall success of your business. It’s always moving forwards and you have to continually move forwards with it.

For more information complete our online form or telephone us at 01526 352919.

“IWM specialise in helping small businesses to either establish their first website, or to improve an existing website that’s not performing to its true potential. Call us on 01526 352919, or Read More >”

June 5, 2014 12:00 am

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